The Journey

"The pain of loss, grief, and despair is not essential for transformation. It is possible to step into a new life in more graceful ways. But for most of us, and certainly for me, pan and loss usually prepare the way. The moment itself may seem effortless, but a lifetime of suffering may have preceded it. A new life requires a death of some kind; otherwise it is nothing new, but rather a shuffling of the same deck."

"Yet the true journey of your life requires a kind of madness. After all, from the standpoint of your old life, you may be throwing everything away for nothing. You do not even know what you are headed toward. Yet the first step can only ever be taken in darkness. You cannot know where it will take you. You cannot plan for this sort of journey because the entire undertaking relies on the unreasonableness of faith. Faith is unreasonable because it rests on no tangible evidence. It is beyond even belief. Th person of faith does not expect everything to turn out the way they want it to; they do not expect some higher power to pick them up when they fall. Their faith is beyond belief and even beyond hope. It is a faith that comes from gnosis - the knowing that has no need of information."

"You cannot know where that voice will take you, but in being willing "to save the only life you could save," you are affirming one of the deepest and most sobering truth of all: no one else can ever walk your journey for you. You alone can respond to your call."

- ten poems to change your life, Roger Housden, p. 14, 18, 20, Harmony books

Editha, William Dean Howells

Realism and Howells's Editha.

 In theintroduction to the “Realism, Regionalism, and Naturalism” on page 31-39, theauthors says, “Both realism and regionalism were frequently vehicles for socialcriticism and satire” on page 36. Howells put “Editha” for making the socialcriticism and satire at the Spanish-American War as the growing imperialism ofthe United States and not a glorious one to make the bloodshed. He realisticallyshows his response to the war and how the country still thinks about it. Hemakes satires that the people who do not actually fight on the field push thepeople who do actually be on the battlefield and die. “Editha,” who is anidealist believing that the war is glorious that God lets to be, directlyrepresents the people who makes the decision on the war but not actually fight;however, George, her lover attending to the war and died at the battlefield,the people who is eventually on the war and fight. On page 113, “She kissed him back intensely, butirrelevantly, as to their passion, and uttered from deep in her throat, “Howglorious!” “It’s war,” he repeated, without consenting to her sense of it,”Editha and George have different ideas on the war because Editha believes thatit is glorious, but George disagrees. Before George going to battlefield,Editha emphasizes “any war glorious thatis for the liberation of people who have been struggling for years against thecruelest oppression,” and pushes him to attend the war; however, George saidthat every war is so stupid and makes him sick. (p.115) When the time comes infront of George, his attitude changes and he said sarcastically on what Edithaemphasizes about the war in “Yes, we’vehad a meeting at the town hall, and everybody has volunteered; and theyselected me for captain, and I’m going to the war, the big war, the gloriouswar, the holy war ordained by the pocket Providence that blesses butchery.”(p.116-117) After George dying on the battlefield, his mother becomes sorrowfulbut tries not to be by giving thank to God not put others’ blood on his hand,saying “I thank my God they killed him first, and that he ain’t livin’ withtheir blood on his hands!” Compared to George’s mother, although Editha criesover his death, she still “began to live again in the ideal.” (p.121) Althoughfamilies whose father, sons, brothers die on battlefield live in sorrow, peopleforcing them to fight and die on the field will forget and live to follow theirideals.

             Belasco, Susan, and Linck Johnson. The Bedford Anthology of American Literature. Vol. 2. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2008. 2 vols. Print.

On being brought from AFRICA to AMERICA, Phillis Wheatley

On being brought from AFRICA to AMERICA

Phillis  Wheatley

 'TWAS mercy brought me from my Pagan land,

Taught my benighted soul to understand

That there's a God, that there's a Saviour too:

Once I redemption neither sought nor knew

Some view our sable race with scornful eye,

"Their colour is a diabolic die."

Remember, Christians, Negros, black as Cain,

May be refin'd, and join th' angelic train.

 On being brought from AFRICA to AMERICA written by Phillis Wheatley was publish 1773. While America was still an England colony, Phillis Wheatley was an "enslaved black female" poet owned by John Wheatley. What did she want to tell the audience since she was a total minor in the society; slave, woman, and black? This poem is brave. As I kept saying, she was a slave, and especially on the eighteenth century, there was a strict bias to African American, although she was settled on North, where was weaker racism than South. However, in this poem, she "bravely" tells that her thought toward the redemption for the black. It might be really hard for her to speak out her thoughts and to be sarcastic about the white. she did not directly make a satire at the white, but what she wants to tell was pretty straightforward; being brought from Africa to America, being taught Christianity and redemption, but not being able to go to heaven because of her skin color, which the white said "cursed." The tone of this poem could be strong, as well as soft. The words like "diabolic," "die," "scornful," and "Cain" sound strong, but the words like "May," "angelic," "mercy," and "redemption" make the sound soft. I love this ambiguous tone, and last two lines, my favorite lines, "Remember, Christian, Negros, Black as Cain./ May be refin'd and  joined th' angelic train," rule the ambiguousness in  the poem. Last two lines deliver the message she wants to tell; however, it is not clear enough to say straight forward because there are two ways to read the lines.

1) Remember,/ Christian, Negros,/ Black as Cain.

2) Remember, Christian,/ Negros, Black as Cain.

 I like second one more than first one because the voice is more connected from the beginning. However, there are no correct answers for the poem since what you feel is right. In addition, I like the metaphors, Cain for the cursed people, angelic train for heaven, and pagan land for Africa. It is pretty direct and simple metaphors letting people easily get the ideas. 

 Although there are controversial opinion between Phillis Wheatey's poetical quality, If I read only this poem, I'd like to say she was the poet, because for me, poems are all about feeling of life and thoughts of religion. Although all her collections did not have a specific theme, such as death, life, redemption, or so on, she still has her own theme, "Phillis Wheatley's life." She delivered her life as slave, black, woman, christian, and made the audience "feel" the messages. The most important thing for poets and writers is emotional connection with readers, and she did. 

"Misery is often the parent of the most affecting touches in poetry. Among the blacks is misery enough, God knows, but not poetry. Love is the peculiar oestrum of the poet. Their love is ardent, but it kindles the senses only, not the imagination. Religion, indeed, has produced a Phillis Wheatley; but it could not produce a poet." - Thomas Jefferson

A fig tree in leaf

The next day as they were leaving Bethany, Jesus was hungry. Seeing in the distance a fig tree in leaf, he went to find out if it had any fruit. When he reached it, he found nothing but leaves, because it was not the season for figs. Then he said to the tree, “May no one ever eat fruit from you again.” And his disciples heard him say it. On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’ ? But you have made it ‘a den of robbers.’ ” The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching. When evening came, Jesus and his disciples went out of the city. In the morning, as they went along, they saw the fig tree withered from the roots. Peter remembered and said to Jesus, “Rabbi, look! The fig tree you cursed has withered!” “Have faith in God,” Jesus answered. “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them. Therefore I tell you, whatever you ask for in prayer, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours. And when you stand praying, if you hold anything against anyone, forgive them, so that your Father in heaven may forgive you your sins. ” (Mark 11:12-25 NIV)

Literature itself for me

As an English major in college, I do love the literature, especially English and American literature. Since last month, I also started to love all other types of literature, which is not only written in English, but also in other languages having different views, such as Muslim or eastern religious background.
While studying in South Korea, I did not like literature at all. I almost hated, although loved to BUY and read books. It was always too fictional and too unrealistic to read. Also lack of ability to understand the differences between the idea and philosophy I had and literature contained could not be taken and it was little painful for me to think deeply about what the author claimed because I applied too mathematical way to think. But as grown up and meeting more people with different backgrounds and thoughts, I started to become interested in those differences and willing to study more about them. My desire to know and study more about it was discovered when I attended to high school in United States. As remember, I took an British Literature class during my junior year with a teacher who had so much enthusiasm toward the literature and delivering the knowledge she had about it. Despite not an extinguished intellect, challenging myself was one of my amusements and her class kept challenging me to push forward. There were two facts that made me love the literature. First, the bottom lines of thoughts were same with me, Christianity. Growing up under the pastor father feed me with the strong belief and biblical knowledge. The first poem letting me enter the love of poems was "On His Blindness" by John Milton, which was written after Milton lost his sight. Its strong and clever theme attracted and suggested me to study more about literature. Second, it satires everything in the world; economics, cultures, politics, so on. While reading Jonathan Swift's "Gulliver's travel", how it criticized the rotten politics in England by wits made me interested and let the thought of being a writer grow in my mind.
Although my parents wanted me to study Economics, I chose English over it. My parents claimed that studying Economics would be helpful for my future career and for studying more deeply about what I was interested in, almost everything in the world. However, it was only my parents' belief. In my opinion, literature actually have everything in the world; philosophy, history, culture, psychology, religion, so on. With the beauty of language and the art of words, I totally fall in love with literature which push me to the next level.

Robert Frost

Robert Frost was the most celebrated poet in United States in 1920s. His fame was growing every time he published the collections, including New Hampshire, A Further Range, Steeple Bush, and In the Clearing. This popular, famous poet was born in March 26, 1874 in San Francisco, and being eleven years old, his family moved to New England. While attending high school in Lawrence, MA, he became interested in reading and writing poetry. In 1892, he went to Dartmouth College, and later to Harvard; however, never earned any formal degree. Leaving scholar works behind, he worked as a teacher, cobbler and editor of Lawrence Sentinel. On November, 8, 1894, on the New York newspaper The Independent, his first professional poem, My Butterfly, was put.
Robert Frost met and married his muse, the biggest inspiration Elinor Miriam White, his wife in 1895. In 1912, with Elinor, he moved to England where get influences from contemporary British poets and build the friendship with the poet Ezra Pound, who helped him to promote and published the works. In 1915, he returned to United States, and published two completed collections, A Boy's Will and North of Boston, which increased his reputation. In January 29, 1963, he died in Boston.
Robert Frost connected his poem with the life and landscape of New England and the poet of traditional verse forms and metrics who remained steadfastly aloof from the poetic movements and fashions of his time. Also he as the author or searching and dark meditations on universal themes and a contemporary poet 1) in his adherence to language as it is actually spoken, 2) in the psychological complexity of his portraits and 3) in the degree to which his work is infused with layers of ambiguity and irony.
The poet Daniel Hoffman said about Frost's early work as "the Puritan ethic turned astonishingly lyrical and enabled to say out loud the sources of its own delight in the world," in a 1970 review of The Poetry of Robert Frost, and he also commented in Frost's career as The American Bard, "He became a national celebrity, our nearly official Poet Laureate, and a great performer in the traditions of that earlier master of the literary vernacular, Mark Twain." Additionally, President John F. Kennedy stated about Frost, "He has bequeathed his nation a body of imperishable verse from which Americans will forever gain joy and understanding."

Biography was found on poets.org (http://www.poems.org/rfros)

Shitty First Drafts, Anne Lamott (1995)

Shitty First Drafts
from Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life
Anne Lamott (1995)

"We all often feel like we are pulling teeth, even those writers whose prose ends up being the most natural and fluid. The right words and sentences just do not come pouring out like ticker tape most of the time."

"The first draft is the child's draft, where you let it all pour out and then let it romp all over the place, knowing that no one is going to see it and that you can shape it later. You just let this childlike part of you channel whatever voices and visions come through and onto the page."

"Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere. Start by getting something-anything down on paper. A friend of mine says that the first draft is the down draft-you just get it down. The second draft is the up draft-you fix it up. You try to say what you have to say more accurately. And the third draft is the dental draft, where you check every tooth, to see if it's looses or cramped or decayed, or even, God help us, healthy."

"Close your eyes and get quiet for a minute, until the chatter starts up. Then isolate one of the voices and imagine the person speaking as a mouse. Pick it up by the tail and drop it into a mason jar. Then isolate another voice, pick it up by the tail, drop it in the jar. And so on. Drop in any high-maintenance parental units, drop in any contractors, lawyers, colleagues, children anyone who is whining in your head. Then out the lid on, and watch all these mouse people clawing at the glass, jabbering away, trying to make you feel like shit because you won't do what they want-won't give them more money, won't be more successful, won't see them more often. Then imagine that there is a volume-control button on the bottle. Turn it all the way up for a minute, and listen to the stream of anger, neglected, guilt-mongering voices. Then turn it all the way down and watch the frantic mice lunge at the glass, trying to get to you. Leave it down, and get back to your shitty first draft."

Louise Erdrich

Louise is very well-known name for me because it is my favorite poet's name, but Erdrich is not. For the women poets class, Louise Erdrich is the first woman poet I need to study and focus on. Although a professor gave a brief introduction on her life, it was not enough. I needed to know more about her to understand, feel, enjoy, and analyze the poems she wrote. "Original Fire; New and Selected Poems" published in 2003 is the book I got for the class. Before I started to work on my paper, first, I wanted to make sure on her life, thought, and maybe philosophy, which I believed that it might be much helpful to amuse and analyze the poems.
In 1954, Louise Erdrich, the daughter of a Chippewa Indian mother and a German-American Father, was born in Little Falls, Minnesota. Influenced by their parents, her works mainly contain Native-American themes, and her main characters represents both sides of her heritage. In North Dakota, she grew up under the parents who teach at a school sponsored by the Bureau of Indian Affair. Later, she went to Dartmouth College. There were two coincidences that might affects on her writing career or life. She was a part of the first class of women admitted to the college and during her first year of college, college built the Native-American studies department. After Dartmouth, she became an editor for the Circle, a Boston Indian Council newspaper. During the interview with Writers Digest, she said, "Settling into that job and becoming comfortable with an urban community-which is very different from the reservation community-gave me another reference point. There were lots of people with mixed blood, lots of people with had their own confusions. I realized that his was part of my life-it wasn't something that I was making up-and that it was something I wanted to write about." In 1978, she attended Johns Hopkins University for an M.A. program, and at Johns Hopkins University, she wrote poems and stories related to her heritage. After M.A. program, she returned to Dartmouth and became a writer-in-residence.
There were three poem collections; Jacklight (1984), Baptism of Desire (1989), and Original fire: New and Selected Poems (2003). The first poetry collection was Jacklight was about the conflict between Native and non-Native cultures; however, also celebrates family bonds and the ties of kinship, offers autobiographical meditations, dramatic monologues and love poetry, and show the influence of Ojibwa myths and legends. Next collection, Baptism of Desire, was about spiritually and the hybrid form of religion, with Roman Catholic and Native values mixed, but conflicted, and also about motherhood and children because of written during her pregnancy. On her last collection, Original Fire: New and Selected Poems(2003), Donna Seaman from Booklist said, "Erdrich's fecund poems are seedbeds for her acclaimed novels deeply attuned to the sacred as it is manifest in everything from sunlight to stones to water to plants and animals, Erdrich grapples with both Native American and Christian beliefs, and the conflicts ignited by the friction between them, in poems of sweet gratitude, voluptuous ecstasy, cutting satire, seething grief, and fiery resolve."
With three pome collections, she wrote several novels; Love Medicine (1984), The Best Queen (1986), Tracks (1988), The Bingo Palace (1994), Tales of Burning Love (1997), The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse (2001), and Four Souls (2004). They are about three interrelated families living in and around a reservation in the fictional town of Argus, North Dakota, from 1912 through the present. The unique styles of her novels are the multi-voice narration and non-chronological storytelling. Also as her first novel Love Medicine was written in collaboration with her husband, Michael Dorris, The Crown of Columbus (1991) also wrote and published together with her husband in early work, but it separated in 1995 and later it was hers alone. Dorris committed suicide in 1997. The first book Erdrich released following his suicide, The Antelope Wife in 1998, has a self-destructive husband. About The Antelope Wife, The New York Times reviewer Michiko Kakutani stated "Erdrich has returned to doing what she does best: using multiple viewpoints and strange, surreal tales within tales to conjure up a family's legacy of love, duty and guilt, and to show us how that family's fortunes have both shifted-and endured-as its members have abandoned ancient Indian traditions for a modern fast-food existence ... As for Ms. Erdrich's own storytelling powers, they are on virtuosic display in this novel. She has given us a fiercely imagined tale if love and loss, a story that manage to transform tragedy into comic redemption, sorrow into heroic survival. She has given us a wonderfully sad, funny and affecting novel." She also wrote non-fiction and children books, based on the lives of Native-American young people at the time of white encroachment.


"Many critics claim Erdrich has remained true to h Native ancestors' mythic and artistic visions while writing fiction that candidly explores the cultural issues facing modern-day Native Americans and mixed heritage Americans."

"Erdrich's accomplishment is that she is weaving a body of work that goes beyond portraying contemporary Native American Life as descendants of a politically dominated people to explore the great universal questions-questions of identity, pattern versus randomness, and the meaning of life itself." - An essayist for Contemporary Novelists

Based on [http://www.poetryfoundation.org/bio/louise-erdrich

February First

The first month of 2013 was already gone. Time goes way faster than I expected. Always made some resolutions for each month and tried to live fruitfully, but did not work out as much as I imagined. However, still, I am planning for the new time coming. I re-made my blog under my name, Ellen Ju, instead of "Talithakoum," which might be little hard for whom wanted to find.
As always, planning on updating my blog regularly about literature, writing, bible, movie, so on. This month, I more focus on my academic material rather than other extra works I assigned to myself. I am taking classes about 1) Introduction to Creative Writing, 2) Literature by the winner of Nobel Prizes, 2) English structure and meaning, 4) Restoration, 5) Modern Poetry, and 6) American Women Poets. While reading poems, short stories, and novels, I always try to give some information or review on either literary matters or literary figure. So excited for new start! Hope everything work out very well.